Abortion

Former White House Chief of Staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel once said that you never want a good crisis to go to waste.

Emanuel: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” (“Rahm Emanuel: Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste,” ThinkFY’s YouTube Channel)

True to form, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and President Barack Obama seized on Monday’s tragic mass-shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. – while the events were still unfolding no less – to push once again for gun control.

On CNN, just minutes ago, Talk Back host Carol Costello proposed putting the National Guard on the scene, specifically in places like Chicago, to stem gun violence. Here’s her post on Facebook. She makes the point that the National Guard was successfully sent into New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina to stop looting and the chaos that enveloped the city. On the show, Costello actually said the idea “sounds pretty good."

This is stunning. It’s easy to get worked up about gun violence and the tragic deaths in Newtown, Connecticut, and the daily killings in Chicago. But what is it with this obsession by liberals, proposing radical solutions like restricting 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding citizens by banning so-called “assault weapons” and large capacity ammunition magazines, mandating universal background checks – including private sales – and now even mobilizing the National Guard?

Today the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Chaired by Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), began hearings on legislation designed to restrict 2nd Amendment rights by banning so-called “assault weapons” and large capacity ammunition magazines, mandate universal background checks, including private sales, and a number of other measures.

We are at this juncture because liberal Democrats are using the tragic Newtown, Connecticut shooting – that took the lives of twenty children and six adults while at school, as well as the mother of the shooter – as an excuse to restrict law abiding citizens from exercising their God given right to defend themselves, their families and their property.

So many have written extensively on the subject of gun rights and have done so much more eloquently than I could hope to. But I haven’t seen much in the way of any substantive discussion about moral equivalency.

As Tim Carney reported yesterday in The Washington Examiner, Planned Parenthood spent more than $700,000 in 2010 lobbying the federal government, doled out more than “$148,000 to federal candidates – almost all Democrats – during the 2010 election cycle,” and also spent nearly $1 million in independent expenditures during the 2010 cycle to support Democrats or oppose Republicans.

But these figures tell only a fraction of the story. Abortion is a political special interest, just like “Big Oil” or “Big Labor.” But the pro-abortion special interest lobby doesn’t spread its money around like other special interests. The abortion “industry” pumps millions of dollars into the federal election system. Not surprisingly, it is members of the Democrat Party who benefit nine times out of ten from the industry’s blood money.

Democrats successfully painted Republicans as radical ideologues in the budget showdown over defunding Planned Parenthood. Painted into a corner where Republicans would be blamed for shutting the government down over women’s “health care,” the GOP really had no choice but to remove the rider from negotiations.

Consider for a moment though, Planned Parenthood has received over $2.3 billion in taxpayer money since 2001. At the same time, Planned Parenthood has provided over 2.4 million abortions and has given out more than 9.9 million morning-after pills, also an abortion. At the same time, Planned Parenthood has only given 20,219 adoption referrals.

Republicans are the radical ideologues? Make no mistake here, there’s nothing more radical than Democrats insisting, as Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did, that the U.S. Senate would “never, never, never” defund Planned Parenthood. Democrats were the ones in the end who would have rather shutter the government than defund abortion.

It’s an inconvenient truth for some and an unwelcome reality for others, but federal tax dollars are being used for abortion. In 1976, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, named after former Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), which prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, with the exception of life of the mother, through Medicaid.

Incensed and outraged that the federal government would not foot the bill for abortions, pro-abortionists went to the courts, arguing there was a Constitutional right for an individual to have the federal government pay for an abortion. Rightly, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government was not under any Constitutional obligation to pay for an abortion.

In “celebrating” the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President Barack Obama stated, “government should not intrude on private family matters.”

A stunning and remarkable statement from the President.

Apparently President Obama believes that when it comes to abortion, the government has no right to “intrude on private family matters.” However, the President has no problem intruding on “private family matters” when it comes to forcing individuals and families to purchase health insurance, whether they want it, can afford it or need it.

Over 50 million babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade. The same cannot be said for the uninsured in this country. Those aborted babies didn't have a choice, but individuals and families do... at least until ObamaCare came along.

Yesterday, The Spokesman-Review highlighted how worried national Democrats are about Senator Patty Murray’s (D-WA) reelection chances. So worried, the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has been going after potential Republican challenger Dino Rossi with “hammer and tong.” Rossi, who was robbed by King County in his battle against Christine Gregoire for Governor in 2004, would be a formidable opponent.

But what if Rossi doesn’t run? Do Democrats breathe a sigh of relief? In short, no. Beyond the current hot-button issues of ObamaCare, jobs, unemployment and a number of other issues, there's plenty in Murray's record to cause more than just heartburn for the Democrat Party.

The debate over government-run health care took a bizarre turn earlier this week when Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) likened opponents of socialized health care to opponents of the abolition of slavery, among other things.

Yesterday the debate turned whether to make tax payers foot the bill for abortion. As you may have guessed, things went completely off the rails. In arguing against an amendment by Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) to ban the use of tax payer funds for abortion, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) equated abortion to Viagra.